Review of Gibson, A. (ed) Prehistoric Pottery: Some Recent Research, BAR International Series S1509. Oxford: Archaeopress. (original) (raw)
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The Neolithic economy was adopted at a late stage on the British Isles, at around 4000 B.C., and is mainly characterized by the adoption of pottery. Great Britain is thus an excellent laboratory of study for analysing the transformation of pottery traditions during the course of the Neolithic by differentiating between traits inherited from earlier traditions and new traits linked to contacts with the continent. Through the technological study of Peterborough Ware style pottery (3400-2900 B.C.), which follows on from the first pottery in the south of Great Britain, this study aims to analyse the technical and stylistic characteristics of this original insular tradition and its three sub-styles (Ebbsfleet, Mortlake and Fengate). These potteries present completely different traits to those identified at the same period in Atlantic Europe, such as cord-impressed decorations or bird bone impressions, and long-standing controversy surrounds their origin. Based on a newly-established inventory of the sites with Peterborough Ware, a sample of 300 recipients was studied. This enabled us to address the elements characterizing the different sub-styles and to propose filiations between them and earlier productions from the initial Neolithic, while identifying evidence of exogenous interactions on the British Isles.
It is here presented a synthesis of the research conducted on Archaic pottery from the Achaian apoikiai of Sybaris, Kroton and Kaulonia. The study was based on the examination of finds recovered from excavations in the urban centres, which are, for the most part, already preliminarily published. The chronological range chosen for the analysis spans approximately from the middle of the VIII century BC, the most ancient date derived from the pottery, to the defeat of Sybaris by Kroton at the end of the VI century BC.
As chrono-cultural entities, the first Neolithic agro-pastoral societies of north-western and central Europe are characterised by variations in the morpho-stylistic attributes of their ceramics, in relationship with a range of specific site contexts. Unquestionably, the focus of research on building chronological frameworks, through essential classificatory and diachronic analyses, occurred to the detriment of the technological approaches extensively applied to other types of archaeological find. The Société préhistorique française session organised at the University of Namur in Belgium by the Laboratoire interdisciplinaire d’anthropologie des techniques (LIATEC, University of Namur) and the ‘Trajectoires. De la sédentarisation à l’État’ team, CNRS and Paris 1 University (UMR 8215) is part of the deployment of a technological approach to the pottery, sharing a common focus on the study of the modes of acquisition and preparation of raw materials in the context of Neolithic ceramic production in southern, north-western, central and southern Europe (ca. 6,000-2,200 cal. BC): parameters relating to the exploitation of resources and to the modalities of their treatment are interrogated as a key to understanding the production/distribution/consumption of the vessels, with a view to tackling the underlying socio-economic behaviour in various Neolithic contexts. The emphasis is on archaeometric, experimental, archaeological and ethnoarchaeological approaches that are implemented within an interdisciplinary perspective. New technical data relating to the selection and treatment of clay materials are structured around broader issues, i.e. the locations and management of areas of exploitation, technical performances, functional ends, the exchange of goods, but also the cultural and/or symbolic dimensions of the materials transformed, the transmission of knowledge and know-how and, more broadly, all that throws light on the organisation of communities of producers and consumers of pottery. Les variations des attributs morphostylistiques des poteries en rapport avec les contextes immobiliers sont les outils fondamentaux de la caractérisation chronoculturelle des premières communautés agropastorales néolithiques d’Europe nord-occidentale et centrale. Manifestement, la construction d’un cadre chronologique a polarisé les recherches néolithiques, au détriment des approches technologiques dont les développements sont récents à l’échelle de l’histoire de la discipline. La table ronde de Namur organisée en 2015 par le Laboratoire interdisciplinaire d’anthropologie des techniques (LIATEC, université de Namur) et l’équipe « Trajectoires. De la sédentarisation à l’État », CNRS et université Paris 1 (UMR 8215) s’inscrit dans le déploiement des analyses de technologie céramique avec comme point de départ une attention particulière à l’étude des modes d’acquisition et de préparation des matières premières dans le contexte des productions céramiques du Néolithique européen (ca 6000-2200 cal. BC) : les paramètres relatifs à l’exploitation des sources et aux modalités de leur traitement sont interrogés comme clés de lecture de la production-distribution-consommation des vases, afin d’aborder les comportements socio-économiques qui les sous-tendent dans des contextes néolithiques diversifiés. L’accent est mis sur les approches archéométriques, ethnoarchéologiques, archéologiques et expérimentales, mises en œuvre dans une perspective interdisciplinaire. Les nouvelles données techniques relatives à la sélection et aux traitements des matériaux argileux s’articulent à des questions plus larges : la localisation et la gestion des aires d’exploitation, les performances techniques, les finalités fonctionnelles, les échanges de biens, mais aussi les dimensions culturelles ou symboliques des matériaux transformés, la transmission des savoirs et savoir-faire et, plus largement, tout ce qui relève de l’organisation des communautés de producteurs et de consommateurs de la poterie.
This study concerns all the potteries found in a Late Neolithic lake-shore village, extensively excavated. The authors try torecognize discrete stylistic and technical features in the ceramics, in relation to houses, considered as elementary social andeconomic cells. During the 30th century B.C., it would appear that pottery was produced by each household and only used forcooking within that household. This type of pottery, with monotonous shapes for monotonous use, may then be opposed toweapons and to male status, in which prestige, competition and long distance exchanges are more frequent.
Whereas historical, political and cultural researches are being stepped up for the post medieval Period in Lebanon, interests for archaeological artifacts remains neglected. The Archaeological excavations undertaken in 1996 and 1997 in Beirut, sites Bey 070, Bey 071 and Bey 111, led to the discovery of table ware ceramics (in the surface layers) dated to the 16th – 19th centuries. In this paper we examine table ware ceramics from various origins: Didymoteicho and Çanakkale (Thrace), Kütahya and Iznik (Analolia), Pisa and Monteloupo (Tuscany), Albisola in Liguria, Varages in Provence, european porcelain, as well as local and/ or regional ceramics.